In memoary of Grigoriy Yeremanlov

Today, we recieved in grief the message
that another one of the 200.000 former Soviet prisoners who survived
slave labour in Norway during the years 1942-45, has left us.

Grigoriy Yeremanlov was taken prisoner
by the Nazis in June 1941. At first, he was interned in an
extermination camp in Poland, in which there was neither housing,
regular food and watersupplies nor any sanitary system. There was
only barbed wire fences and watchtowers. The death tolls were huge.

The following year, he was transported
to the occupied Norway by boat. Grigoriy was sent to Aardal in the
Sognefjorden area, where he was forced to labour with the
construction av an Aluminium refinery that is still running there.

We met Grigoriy in 2004. We were
working with a documentary film about slave labourers in Norway
during the Nazi occupation. Grigoriy then told us, that he was not
allowed to go home, when he was sent from Norway i the summer of
1945. He was again interned, this time in a filtration camp (in
Estonia, as far as I can remember). There, all the former prisoners
were interrogated and sentenced for breaking the oath of the Red
Army, about not letting themselves be taken prisoners.

Grigoriy was sentenced to two years
imprisonment at labour. He was transported to Novorissiysk. The city
was completely destroyed during the hard fighting i 1942 and 1943,
and a contingent of 1500 prisoners were the first ones to start
clearing up and rebuilding it.

After he had served his sentence,
Grigoriy stayed in Novorissisk. He had a lot of problems because of
his sentence, and he was not rehabilitated till the early nineties.
Since then, he was decorated several times for his sacrifices during
the Great Motherland War. He also had got a compensation from
Germany.

When he recieved us in 2004, he treated
us very kindly and well. I remenber he served "American Vodka"
to us. From him, we got improtant informations that helped us
understand better our own, Norwegian history - in particular the
history of our industry. And as well, he brought new light upon the
history about the immence sacrifices that Russia, Ukraine and the
other parts of the Soviet Union gave in the war against Nazism.

We will express our gratitude to
Grigoriy Yeremanlov and all of his comrades who the Nazis deported to
Norway. 20.000 of them are buried in our soil. Their blood links us
together for ever.